Panga death for wife

IMPORTANT NOTICE: In the first printed edition of the Limpopo Mirror, the wrong picture appeared. The picture was that of the owner of the house, and not the accused. We apologise for the error. 

The chilling incident happened on Saturday evening between 20:00 and 21:00 at Khubvi, outside Thohoyandou.

Information at this paper's disposal is that the couple, who originally come from Mozambique, used to have arguments time and again and that the man had threatened to kill the woman on a number of occasions.

According to Mr Mmbengeni Sigovho, who asked the couple to look after the house after the passing away of his sister, said that the husband was a violent man. “There were numerous arguments and they even went to the extent of getting a protection order against each other.” Sigovho further indicated that the woman could have been killed between 20:00 and 21:00.

After the gruesome killing, the man is said to have left for a local tavern where he drank until around 01:00 the next morning.  On returning to the house,  the man is alleged to have cried out at the top of his voice, saying that the Vendas had ritually murdered his wife. "A friend of his, also from Mozambique, allegedly then warned him not to mislead people and to tell the truth, but he just sat there crying,” Sigovho added.

Detectives cordoned off and searched the whole area, whereupon they found bloodied clothing that had been thrown in a pit toilet, and the man was subsequently arrested.

Sigovho said he was still in shock, following what he had seen at the murder scene. "These people have been here for only two months and I put them here after the death of my sister, so that they could look after the house.  We are in deep shock. The blood that I saw there was like a cow had been slaughtered.”

Khubvi Block C chairperson Mr Ramurushe Netshishivhe said the incident had shocked the village. “There is too much crime. I  do not want to sound xenophobic, but in the wee hours you will hear them speaking foreign languages while passing by. They are the ones behind most of the crimes, and the sooner we sit down with the leadership and see how to deal with this problem, the better," Netshishivhe said.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Lt-Col Mashudu Malelo confirmed the incident, saying preliminary investigations revealed that the two had argued about the wife's cheating with other men, whereupon the man had hacked the woman all over her body and killed her.

Mbalane appeared in the Thohoyandou Magistrate's Court on Tuesday and the case was postponed to today (Friday) pending further investigations. He is in custody.

Date:07 October 2016

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

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